City Research Online

Abstract

Access-based platforms are complex, interconnected, and dependent on all consumers, which creates significant opportunities for consumer hacks. Drawing from the study of a clothing rental platform, we investigate how consumer hacks impact value creation for the platform and other consumers. We contribute to the literature on access-based consumption and consumer misbehavior by introducing consumer hacks. We highlight the heterogeneity of misbehaving consumers’ motivations, revealing that consumer hacks expand beyond dissatisfied consumers. Moreover, we stress how hacks’ diffusion, particularly via social media, can increase their breadth, speed, and impact on value. Adopting a multi-layered perspective to value creation, we show that consumer hacks can both create and destroy value by inducing misalignments between egoistic, mutualistic, and corporate value outcomes. Finally, we evidence the dark side of customer engagement by introducing consumer hacks as a highly active customer engagement with value-destroying potential. Our results also have implications for managing access-based platforms.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publisher Keywords:	Consumer misbehavior; Sharing economy; Access-based consumption; Platform; Value creation; Value destruction
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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